


The Spoils of Victory

by FunkyinFishnet



Category: Professional Wrestling, World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: Friendship, Friendship/Love, Gift Giving, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-17
Updated: 2018-06-17
Packaged: 2019-05-24 15:20:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14957117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FunkyinFishnet/pseuds/FunkyinFishnet
Summary: Aleister Black is the NXT Champion. He savours every spoil of victory and wishes for more.





	The Spoils of Victory

 

 

 

Aleister received several gifts following his NXT Championship victory. Candice sent him parcels of cupcakes every week for two months straight. The flavours varied and were frequently unusual – the sparse but relevant accompanying notes penned in a rainbow of colours explained that she was experimenting which she thought he'd appreciate – but they were always delicious.

 

 

Her husband intended to claim Aleister's title, because Johnny Gargano wielded morality and a purity of hope and purpose unrepentently. Candice still sent Aleister cupcakes though because she understood, as her husband did, that a fight for gold, for anything, did not mean a corresponding lack of respect or the destruction of everything an opponent cared for. Not everyone was Tommaso Ciampa, stewing in someone else's sins to explain his own fault lines.

 

 

Aleister especially appreciated the chilli chocolate cake that Candice included. He liked the burn.

 

 

He often wore a handful of charms on a chain necklace. Ember Moon had sourced the charms and had spoken words and breathed life over them. Then she'd packed them and the chain in a velvet bag, nestled amongst herbs – bay laurel for success, calendula for health, lovage for strength. Aleister kept the herbs, pressed between the pages of his books, when the leaves weren't being plucked for the altar or flames.

 

 

Ruby and her Riott Squad mailed him a plain black box. Sarah had procured a long narrow knife blade and had spent a lot of time and effort working it to a fine sharp point. No good for the hunting and skinning that was the majority of her life but that wasn't its purpose. Aleister was a different kind of hunter. Ruby had carved runes into the handle. Liv had included an enormous bag of sour candies in luridly-bright colours. Aleister stared at the juxtoposition for some moments.

 

 

 _They suit you_ , Liv texted at the end of the week, with sure triumph.

 

 

Aleister didn't reply but he didn't throw out the candy either. She hadn't sent Jolly Ranchers. Aleister split the skin of his palm, then his forearm, and shed enough blood for gratitude. He doused three candles and left bloody fingerprints on the altar, and on crushed cupcake wrappers. The candy bag was half full by the time he was done.

 

 

Kassius Ohno left a bottle of high-quality whiskey by Aleister's bags at the Performance Centre. No note was needed.

 

 

There were messages from contacts in Holland and Germany, the UK and America. There were compliments and curse words and joy in numerous forms. Aleister recognised it all.

 

 

Several large glossy feathers were swathed in gauzy material and artfully left with Aleister's ring jacket during a show. They were a familiar deep purple and smelled as though they had been spritzed with an equally familiar and expensive cologne. Aleister placed one feather on the altar. He placed another, in its gauzy wrapping, in the bag he used daily. His fingers often found it and caressed its fronds. It made his mouth twitch. It was a different, equally preoccupying, kind of burn.

 

 

Aleister kept his championship where he could see it. Victories weren't supposed to be locked away. They were to be studied and built on. As with everything, they were to be savoured.

 

 

He touched the feather on the altar and enjoyed the burn.

 

 

 

_-the end_

 


End file.
